I'm considering picking up a mid 80's 36 for what I feel is a decent price considering the work the boat needs. During my inspection of it I found soft decks on the port side just above the head. No big deal since core replacement isn't exactly hard. However, After further poking around below, the bulkhead for the port chainplate has a significant amount of rot right in the area below the chain plate, where the settee butts up against the bulkhead.

I searched around but couldn't find any documentation for someone else having replaced the bulkhead to get an idea of the labor hours involved in such an adventure.

Is this something I should consider tackling or is it a big enough deal that I should walk away from the boat?

If you join the Association as a Member you will get access to the Members-only areas of this site including the Technical Library. This includes dozens of write-ups by other owners on various repair, maintenance and upgrade tasks for your C36. A notable example is a very thorough illustrated article on replacing the port bulkhead by John Reimann, also a how-to for cleaning and rebedding the chainplates by Bruce Landsberg.

Most C36 owners find that getting access to this information alone is worth the price of Association Membership, in addition to supporting the Assoc. and this website, as well as the other benefits including the tool loan library, etc.

Also see posts in the Technical area of the Forum, such as "Replace Bulkhead?" or "​Water Damaged Bulkhead (Would You Buy This Boat?)".

I haven't purchased the boat yet so exact details on how to do it aren't really what I'm looking for. I'm just needing to know how involved the process is and whether or not I should go through with the purchase, or if it would be better to buy a different boat in better condition.

If you are handy you can replace a bulkhead yourself. You can repair a bulkhead yourself. You can rebed the chainplates and install the updated chainplate covers (2008 IIRC) yourself. Most older C36s will have some amount of water entry from the chainplate slots. Many C36 owners have joined the Assoc prior to purchase for just the knowledge you are seeking.

I have done this repair on my boat. You have two choices:
1. you can pull the mast and remove the bulkhead fairly easily. It is slotted in at the top and bolted at the bottom. This is the easiest way to replace it. The bulkhead is actually two pieces with a port side piece where the chainplate attaches and a larger piece that sits above the settee/head compartment wall.
2. if the rot is confined to the piece under the chainplate this can be worked out without removing the mast but will require removing the cabinet above the head. It's awkward but I was able to do it.
3. if the rot extends along the bottom of the larger piece I recommend you remove the mast. I didn't have that option and scarfed in a piece of marine plywood across the bottom 18". This is much harder to get right and you will end up having to refinish the both sides (I used teak veneer on the cabin side and epoxy paint on the head side).

Brent, Thanks for the info! I was going to join the association so I can access the articles but my account is still "Pending" so it doesn't look like I can purchase the access/membership at this point.

The boat I'm looking at is up in your neck of the woods on Texoma. It has a few other things that I want to resolve before it is ultimately down in the gulf. As such I'm going to be shipping it down here to Austin and keeping it on stands at my house. My wife and I are planning to go cruising, leaving out after hurricane season, in 2019. The money I'll save on docking, and gas/expenses for getting down to the boat to work on it should more than off-set the cost of moving the thing twice.

I'm getting a survey done next Wednesday. Assuming the surveyor doesn't find any more serious issues with the boat I'll own it next week!

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Hey guys, I wanted to add that I successfully removed the chainplate, and bulkhead on my boat today. The thought of doing it was far more intimidating than the actual process. I think it took me about 2 hours to remove the chainplate and bulkhead. Reinstallation is going to be a bit more indepth since I need to do some reinforcement where the chainplate bolts go through. I think I'll need to buy some longer bolts for the chainplates troo.

It’s a process. A couple of us have done this including myself. Shoot me a message and I would be glad to have a phone conversation on it. Basically it’s doable, it’s conplicated with a few mistakes to avoid but you can have good results.

Thanks for the offer Brent, I think its going to go back together pretty easily. I've already grabbed the plywood. I'm going to cut it out on some cheap 1/4" ply to test fit before cutting the expensive plywood. I think the worst part of the whole thing is going to be epoxying the wood to seal it all up, and painting it. I think I'll have the new bulkhead back in this weekend if all goes as planned. That'll let me tackle the soft core next week!

I will certainly give it a shot. I tried recording myself removing the bulhead but the lighting was just too poor. I'll write it up and try to grab some photos as I put everything back together with the new bulkhead.

I haven't forgotten about this, but the bulkhead project turned into a bigger issue with replacing some other wood else where. New counter top, led to rotten core in the area the port, forward rod ties in to that whole section. Also led to like 2 other on-going projects too since its easier to get to the through hulls with the bulhead out of the way.. and so on and so forth.